Editors Note: This is NOT a paid political advertisement or endorsed by anyone other than the writer / author of this blog. On Monday, August 19th, Democratic Presidential candidate Julián Castro unveiled a platform focused on advancing the welfare of animals around the globe, both domestic and wildlife. It would raise standards for factory farms […]

They said it couldn’t happen. They said wild salmon would never breach penned-up fish farms. They were wrong. And that’s a big problem. On June 11, 2019, members from the ƛaʔuukʷiʔatḥ / Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation, including Tribal Parks Guardians and members of the Clayoquot Sound Indigenous Salmon Alliance, boarded and inspected open net pen […] […]

President Trump’s declaration of a national emergency has escalated tensions all across the southern border. The large majority of residents who live near the Mexican border don’t want the Wall built. Their reasons include fear of the government’s use of eminent domain, the high probability of flooding from a built wall, concern of escalating tensions […] […]

Just when you thought your food choices were clear and safe. UK firm The John Innes Centre has applied for permission to plant experimental genetically modified wheat and broccoli in open fields at their farm outside Norwich, in the United Kingdom. The research company hopes to begin two small-scale field trials in April. In 2017, […]

When you consider our nation’s health, the quality of our food, its decreasing nutritional value and the increased degradation of our farmland, it’s not a pretty picture — and the challenges related to these issues keep growing. By 2050 the world’s population will likely reach close to 9 billion people. To feed everyone, we’ll need […]

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The Hubble Space Telescope is truly a wonder of engineering and vision. It’s captured the imagination of many of Americans, to the point that when it’s lens was faulty and the powers that be thought to get rid of it with something new, a hue and cry went up to save it. And it worked.

The Hubble was repaired in a first of its kind mission and has been capturing amazing pictures of astral phenomenon ever since.

Now the Hubble is turning 25 and thoughts are turning to what lies beyond our solar system. Will be finally be able to get the answer to our age-old question: “are we alone?”

The Hubble Space Telescope has moved astronomy forward and revolutionized public awareness of science. Twenty-five years after launch on 24 April 1990, the Hubble Telescope’s success highlights the need for boldness in the face of budget constraints, says Mario Livio in a Comment piece in this week’s Nature. The next goal should be a search for signs of life on planets beyond our Solar System, he argues.

Livio calls on space agencies to back a bold mission to look for biological signatures such as oxygen and chlorophyll in the atmospheres of exoplanets.

“We must think big and put scientific goals ahead of budgetary concerns”, he says.The targeting of around 50 such planets with a telescope mirror five times bigger than Hubble’s could tell us the probability of life existing elsewhere in the Milky Way, he notes.

To learn more about the Hubble and its potential for discovery, click here.